Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Last month, The Villagerreported on Amazon contract delivery trucks "showing up in large unmarked vehicles around Union Square and other Downtown neighborhoods with increasing frequency."

In recent months, an unmarked truck has set up an impromptu distribution center on Second Avenue at Seventh Street — in front of where the three buidlings were destroyed following the deadly gas explosion in March 2015.

"They are blocking me, every day — even on the weekends," Mariann Pizzaia, owner of the 1950s-inspired boutique Enz's at 125 Second Ave., told me. "Sometimes people can't walk on Second Avenue. There are at least six to eight workers banging boxes."

The workers will sort packages in the street or on the sidewalk, loading them on small hand trucks for delivery to neighboring residences.

Aside from being an ongoing annoyance, Pizzaia says that the truck obscures her storefront for periods of up to four-plus hours daily, and she is missing out on potential foot traffic from people waking on the other side of Second Avenue or dining outside at Bar Virage or Cafe Mocha.

There are signs posted stating that this is a No Standing zone 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. daily in this far Bus Only lane. However, Pizzaia says that the truck parks here during these hours.

For its story, The Villager traced the source to a New York-based trucking and freight-shipping company called Cornucopia Logistics, which has warehouses in New Jersey.

Cornucopia’s corporate parent, Avant Business Services, has a dispatching office in One Grand Central Plaza’s basement. Ken Daniels, an Avant financial executive, refused ... to discuss the nature of his company’s contract with Amazon or to explain why it allows workers to use city streets as an ad hoc warehouse and distribution hub.

The Villager spoke with Julie Jang, the manager of Jay Nails at 780 Broadway.

“Basically, they park all day,” Jang said, claiming the trucks overstay a three-hour metered parking limit on commercial vehicles imposed by the city’s Department of Transportation. “They load up all the boxes on the street where cars park. They have a canopy when it rains.”

Jang said Cornucopia’s street operation has caused business to drop at the nail salon because “they’re right in front of our store and people passing can’t see our awning..."

Pizzaia just reached out to elected local officials, and hopes to get some help with the impromptu unloading zone that she says is hurting her business.

"Honestly I really don't want to fight these people every day," Pizzaia said. "I don't want to close my shop, but this is not fun."

All photos courtesy of Mariann Pizzaia

Updated 10/5

The trucking company has promised to move its operation to the two-block stretch of Lafayette between Astor Place and Fourth Avenue, The Villagerreports.

I don't buy from Amazon. There's really no reason to, here in the city. We have great bookstores, housewares, everything, all in walking distance. I haven't ordered from them in years and it's been very easy to cut them out of my life. I recommend it! It's not difficult, just give it a try!

Wish it were that easy; I currently don't buy anything from them, but they do have a lot of stuff that's hard to get anywhere else, which is why it's the go-to for so many people.

A better alternative is Brandless, which is also only $3 per item—because you avoid the "brand tax." But they still rely on shipping, of course; the best alternative is to shop local—since we live in NYC, where so much stuff is available in stores.

whether we like/dislike amazon (i buy EVERYTHING from them---just hate to shop and in my experience, a lot of disinterested/rude/unappreciative shopkeepers in the east village---never understand how an owner will turn over his investment to people who don't give a ****) this seems to be a distributor issue......

Hmm, people as always just harping on "elected officials" and "the city" - you know this can be most immediately addressed via NYPD enforcement? But 9th pct doesn't ticket anywhere as much as it should; tons of illegal parking like here, also double parking, whether by commercial or private vehicles, not to mention moving violations like failure to yield. 9th pct themselves are scofflaws, for example parking their private cars in the 2nd ave bus lane during hours it's reserved for city buses, throwing an NYPD vest on the dashboard (or parking placard that does NOT allow illegal parking) and calling it the day.

Isn't it funny how these delivery services never set up outside a nice new shiny Ben Shaoul condo? Amazon has had some real problems with these delivery services. Most of them are crappy. Last year it was Lazership: over the holidays they were dumping Amazon boxes in the lobbies is all over the place and many people weren't getting their Christmas packages. It was probably the worst holiday season Amazon ever had in terms of fulfilling deliveries and people were and still are very pissed off about it. Now Amazon has added something called Cornucopia, and theiy are clogging up the sidewalks illegally all day using it as free warehouse space. I bet pretty soon they will be setting up all around Tompkins Square, Park, using public space without having to pay a dime.

First Amazon put local businesses out of business by competing with them, now they're going to put more local businesses out of business by blocking them. All this economic and social destruction just so that Amazon's Jeff "Do I Look Like An Alien?" Bezos can become the first baldheaded trillionaire on earth. When President WTF and Baldy Bezos are the two biggest forces shaping our future, you know we are one sick society

Amazon's delivery "services" - whatever they may be - do a quick & dirty job of delivering, from what I have seen. Guys in hi-viz vests trundling carts full of packages down the block, then they stop and sort-of look at addresses and begin "delivering" packages (often by leaving them in the outer lobby of a building). I don't consider that "delivery" - they don't even bother to ring a doorbell & wait for response. They just basically leave the package near the building entrance and move on.

This is just one of the many reasons I try never to order from Amazon if I can get what I need from a more local merchant.

This is all Maria Hrynenkos fault. When does her trial start anyway? And what really happened to her son? Just call 311 and report them for blocking the sidewalk. I once had a Shoprite 18 wheeler ticketed and removed for a similar issue. These trucks will be pushed aside as soon as construction starts on the empty lot, and then these shops will have a whole new set of problems to deal with.

Amazon is basically wrong on EVERY LEVEL in the same way that Wal-Mart is wrong. Amazon helped kill the publishing industry, and is now helping along the death of brick and mortar retail. Why? Because people are sick in the head and equate "one-click" ordering on APrime as the end all be all of "get whatever you can get" delivered right to your door. The people who order relentlessly from them are too lazy to actually shop. I mean, you need that fucking iPhone for something, right? Why not shop ALL DAY LONG FROM THE SAME VENDOR? It's sick, sick, sick. My new neighbor gets roughly 4-5 Amazon boxes every single week. EVERY WEEK. No exaggeration. Everything he eats, everything in toiletries, clothing, shoes, everything. It's disgusting. He has a very limited imagination, apparently. It must be great if you live in the sticks, but this is NYC. And these small businesses like ENZ are one of the reasons why this city was once so great.

@3:09PM I had the Shoprite truck, which was a chronic repeat offender, ticketed for creating a hazardous situation. They haven't retuned, and instead now park around the corner where they are supposed to. I have also had those plates on the street repaired almost immediately so they don't make noise when cars roll over them, agan based on a public safety issue. You just have to know which buttons to push to get your problem resolved.

That's great to hear the Shoprite driver stopped parking illegally after he was ticketed but lots of companies don't care about tickets as a previous poster said. It is something that they know they are going to have as an expense and they budget for it. It's worth it for them to get some tickets but be able to make their deliveries the way they want to. The city should stop that thinking by revoking licenses or some other punishment after a certain number of tickets.

How could a company as rich as Amazon NOT have sufficient spaces to warehouse items and have a proper delivery system, instead of piling boxes on the street from a truck like some gangbanger or mafiaso hijacked it. Oh, yeah they had to wait to get massive tax abatements to get the venues they need.

FedEx does the same thing on East Houston btwn A and B. They've moved from the south side of the street by Suffolk, because of the new construction, but they sort the crap on the sidewalk in front of empty storefronts, adjacent to to FedEx kinkos, that are for rent. They'd rather kluge up the sidewalks and leave boxes in the rain than pony up and rent themselves the available space. Also, the trucks block the bike lane and make it a particularly treacherous situation to peddle through.

Being a consumer in 2017 is so complicated. So many ethics to think about. Is the company I am buying from on the up and up? etc

Corporations by definition are heartless, ruthless entities. That's why I do not believe in true laissez faire economics. In a civilized society the government has to regulate. Corporations were invented to eliminate the human, the accountability aspect of doing business. Unchecked they will run roughshod over people and their interests. That is the whole point of a corporation after all.

It should not be incumbent upon the consumer to attempt to police or to somehow regulate the behavior of the businesses from which they buy ordinary household shit. Anyhow what kind of results could we possibly expect from spreading around "don't buy from Amazon" type comments? It's howling into the wind IMO.

Seems like Amazon is being a bad business, and the city is looking the other way. The city is failing us again.

These packages are going to come from UPS/FedEx/USPS either way. Amazon's created a ton of jobs by doing this and they are adapting with consumer needs unlike the retails stores. I understand that there are concerns here but the packages are going to be delivered either way.

I hated Amazon, in the beginning. Would not buy anything from them, even if they are the only one who would carry something I needed or wanted. But as I try to patronized local or nearby shops, whether they are independent businesses or chains, I just do not get the friendliness and service that one is supposed or used to get when shopping at brick-and-mortar stores. They follow you around, suspicious of you, rush you, they want you there in as little time as possible with as much purchases that they can get from you. Plus, there was a time when one can browse without purchasing anything and then buy it at a later time once one had time to think it over had time to saved money (or credit) for it.

Now, I purchase from Amazon -- I have time to browse without those suspicious eyes and pushy staff and you get no slack should you want to return an item -- no muss, no fuss, unlike shopping at a physical store. The latter is supposed to provide a personalized and customer service, but I do not get that (anymore) from them.

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